Come Sail Away
by AddictedToStory
Summary: The Victorious gang joins Beck's family on a cruise the summer before they graduate and get into exactly as much trouble as you would expect them to. Bade (other couples TBD), with the focus on various friendships.


Beck Oliver feels a smile take over his face the second he hears her combat boots stomping up the unstable metal stairs of the RV. He doesn't even bother finishing the sentence in his history paper that he's been half-heartedly reworking for half an hour before closing his laptop and sitting up to face the door. It opens (somewhat gently this time- she's in a good mood!) to reveal a soaking wet and pajama-clad Jade West, who's smiling at him despite, or possibly because of, the chilly rain outside.

"Hey," she says, immediately heading towards his bathroom and grabbing one of his t-shirts out of the dresser on her way.

"Nice weather we're having today, huh?" he jokes, unwrapping a bag of popcorn and putting it in the microwave to cook while he pours two mugs of coffee for them.

"Hate you." She glares as she comes out of the bathroom, now wearing only his old Beatles shirt and a pair of black boyshorts, but the smile tugging on the corner of her lips gives her away. She's towel drying her hair, which has been recently dyed back to brown and is currently free of any colored streaks.

"No you don't," he says, even though it's obvious. She glares at him again and he wraps his arms around her waist, attacking her with tickles until she's laughing. She tries to school her features into a pout, but quickly gives up and settles for kissing him.

When she pulls away, he hands her the purple coffee mug and she accepts it with a grin. She sits cross-legged on his bed, leaning against his headboard. He drops down at the foot of the bed moments later, setting the bowl of popcorn in between them.

"So," he starts. "Interesting news. The family reunion will apparently be taking place on a cruise ship this year -" He's about to say more when she interrupts with a scoff. He continues talking, putting emphasis on the next part, which he's hoping she'll enjoy. "- and my parents agreed to let you and the others come with us as my graduation present."

He sees the corners of her mouth turn up at that. They'll be graduating in a few months' time and, although the two of them have been working diligently to try and fit their future plans together, there's no denying that things will change next year. Not only in their relationship, but among their friend group, too. This year, they've been more determined than ever to spend time together and cement their already strong bonds. Even Jade, who normally has trouble socializing for longer than a few hours, has been making more of an effort to spend time with everyone. Beck is proud of her for that, though he never really protests when she refuses to go out or wants to leave early. He knows she needs time by herself (or with just him) to recharge and he doesn't mind giving her that. He enjoys time alone with her immensely as well.

They spend the rest of the night daydreaming about lying by the pool, cuddling in bed with room service, and going on excursions at each port. They finally call it a night around 3 o'clock and curl up together on the bed, her head on his chest and their legs tangled together. He kisses her hair and both of their 'I love you's are given freely. He loves nights like these, when Jade doesn't have her guard up; when she lets herself be excited about stuff and laughs at his jokes and accepts his compliments. He hopes that their friends' presence on the cruise won't make her so anxious that she can't be herself like she is on nights like these.

* * *

It doesn't take much convincing from Beck before all of their friends have agreed to the cruise. Especially when he tells them that his parents have offered to pay half. Most of them had been saving for some as-yet-undecided spring break trip that they collectively chose to skip in favor of the cruise in mid July. And no one really had trouble convincing their parents, who were all pretty hands-off at this point in their children's lives. All except Mr. and Mrs. Shapiro, who insisted on a lengthy phone conversation with Mrs. Oliver about safety and rules and tons of other boring stuff that Beck was sure his mother wasn't paying much attention to. She trusted Beck, too much perhaps, considering that she had no qualms about letting Jade stay in his RV for weeks at a time with relatively no supervision. This trust extended to Beck's friends as well, so Beck knew she wouldn't be enforcing the ten o'clock curfew Mrs. Shapiro had 'strongly suggested'.

Tickets were booked, excursions were chosen, and a ridiculous group chat was made in preparation for the trip. Beck's family had been informed that his friends were joining them and this was met with all the complaints that would be expected from a bunch of adults that just found out their 'relaxing vacation' would be interrupted by a group of 'rowdy teens'. The complaining only increased when they found out that Jade was one of said rowdy teens and Mrs. Oliver was once again subjected to long phone conversations in which she had to defend Jade, Beck, her parenting skills, and their entire generation. Beck was extremely thankful to have his mother in his corner throughout all of this. Like her son, she had gotten to know Jade well over the past ten years and remains one of the only members of the Oliver family who genuinely likes her.

All of the chaotic preparation culminated in a trip to Walmart at two AM, just seven hours before the plane was set to leave. Shopping list from his mother in hand, Beck pushes the cart up and down the aisles. Jade sits cross-legged in the basket, facing Beck and looking dead tired. He had just barely managed to convince her to join him and she had finally agreed only because she still had more to pack and knew she would fall asleep waiting for him.

"Your uncle isn't still mad at me for that whole accidently-setting-his-hair-on-fire thing when we were ten, is he?" Jade asks, biting her lip as Beck adds toothpaste to their cart.

He raises an eyebrow at her, trying to hide his smile as he responds "Wouldn't you be?"

Jade shrugs, also smiling, as they turn into the men's clothing section. "I'll try and be nice," she promises. "The black ones," she adds in response to the two pairs of flip flops Beck questioningly holds up for her to see. He throws them in the cart and continues on his way before answering.

"Be you," he tells her. "I wanna go on this trip with you, not some watered-down, fake-happy version of you. If you happen to be a little more relaxed that'd be cool, but don't pretend, okay?"

He smiles down at Jade, who's looking at him as if he had just said the most romantic thing in the world, and his heart flutters in his chest like it always does when she looks this sweet.

"I want you to have fun on this trip. And if you aren't, just tell me instead of going off on everyone and we'll go chill by ourselves for a bit. Deal?"

"Deal."

* * *

**Another story because I have no self control. **

**I was lucky enough to go on a cruise with my best friend over the summer and it was really great, so I decided this story was a pretty good way to remember my trip, as well as explore the Victorious characters' relationships. And apparently I decided November was the best time to post it. I know it's a little unrealistic to have six teenagers be able to both pay for and be allowed to go on a vacation that expensive with such little trouble, but bear with me.**

**Let me know if you really want to see any other ships. It'll obviously be Bade, but I'm open to adding others. I really want to focus on friendships, too, so let me know which of those are most interesting to you.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-J**


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